Low staffing levels at sex offender unit monitoring Peter Chapman allowed him to 'slip away' and murder Ashleigh Hall
Failings by Merseyside police allowed a sex offender to slip away and murder a teenager he had befriended on Facebook, an inquiry has found.
The Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) concluded that inadequate resourcing resulted in the poor management of Peter Chapman, 34, who became known as the Facebook killer.
Chapman murdered 17-year-old Ashleigh Hall in County Durham in October 2009 after befriending her on the website. As a convicted rapist, he was placed on the sex offenders register in 1996 and should have been regularly monitored.
Chapman, who lived in Merseyside, pleaded guilty to murdering Ashleigh, from Darlington, after kidnapping, raping and smothering her to death. He was jailed for life in March 2010.
Chapman claimed on the site that he was a teenager. He posted a picture of an unknown man as his online profile image as well as fake photographs.
Merseyside police made a referral over its conduct to the IPCC after his conviction. The IPCC said that between being registered and committing the murder, Chapman had been suspected of two sex offences. He was also convicted of motoring offences and theft, and was jailed for failing to comply with his registration order.
The watchdog said that after May 2005, when Chapman moved to the Merseyside area and came under Knowsley's sex offender unit, he should have been visited every three months. But the IPCC said that a nine-month period elapsed between visits by a female police officer, who worked alone because of low staffing levels.
The investigation concluded that staffing levels at the Knowsley unit meant effective management of offenders was impossible. The unit was found to be "poorly organised and was the only one in the force that was not a stand-alone unit".
The IPCC found that the constable in charge had received no appropriate training in the management of sex offenders, despite her repeated requests for training. Merseyside police said it has undertaken an extensive review of the organisation, management and resourcing of its sex offender units. The force said it had also made improvements to strengthen its management of sex offenders and is confident it is now more robust.
The IPCC commissioner, Naseem Malik, said: "It is evident from our investigation that this particular sex offender unit was inadequately resourced and, as a result the officer tasked with managing sex offenders in the community had an impossible task.
"Chapman was not monitored effectively and managed to slip away, with terrible consequences. I fully appreciate that irrespective of the failings in monitoring, Chapman may well have enacted his plan anyway. Only 24-hour monitoring could ensure prevention of such acts."
Malik expressed her deepest sympathies to Ashleigh Hall's family for their loss. She said their grief could only be compounded by the evident police failings that have been uncovered.
Josh Halliday 25 Aug, 2011
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Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/aug/24/merseyside-police-facebook-killer-ipcc
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